Welcome back for more safety tips. Last time we learned how not to use a soldering iron and today we will move on to probably the next most popular nerd/geek tool which is, of course, glue. Glue, as we all know, is used to bond things together... I could go on but then that's what wikipedia is for.

1. As with a soldering iron, ventilation is suggested.

2. Don't forget to cap or close any glue and not to just put it down on your work space while you hold two pieces of a model together. I've scraped more than one tube of glue off my desk.

3. Avoid contact with skin and eyes. Because while we all have joked about gluing ourselves to model bits or to yourself it's a lot less funny when you realize that you have just created a nice bond between your two model pieces and both of your thumbs. It's also less funny to try to separate yourself from the pieces and yourself while your (apparently) heartless significant other takes the opportunity to laugh at you until she cries.

4. Use care when opening glue containers. Most super glue comes in a small tube with a sealed nozzle. This nozzle is opened with a small barb (of course try not to stab yourself)... now make sure to hold the nozzle at its base and not the soft tube itself. If you hold it by the tube and apply pressure you may luck out and open your tube of glue - or it may instead explode, covering your hand in a thin layer of glue (like it did to me). Thankfully because of the quantity of glue you should be able to pull the ruined tube off your hand before the glue sets (but sometimes pieces remain, and they are sharp) and with luck you will only look like you have a molting reptile hand for a month or so as the glue and your skin slowly fall off.

And so, glue... simple and surprisingly dangerous. And remember if you do manage to glue yourself to something or to yourself (or someone else) don't just rip or pull yourself free, unless you really don't like skin being attached. Warm water will help with a lot of glue issues or Dawn cleaner. Failing that, you might want to see a doctor. Don't forget to stop by next time for more lessons learned through my pain.

Safety tips for common geek tools - Part 1

Since the bulk of Slashdot have probably at one time or another thought it might be fun to solder something or make a model, I thought I could offer some suggestions on how not to harm your self.

In today's installment I'll be talking about the use of the ever-popular soldering iron. Used for such tasks as soldering circuit components and well... I guess you can burn wood with it to make signs like that one guy that seems to be at every flea market.

Soldering Iron -

1. Always use in a well ventilated area, I'm not sure what is in the fumes that soldering gives off, but after the initial buzz wears off you're left with just a pounding headache.

2. Make sure to clean the soldering iron between uses with a wet sponge. There's nothing quite like examining your new project to find bits of burned slag in the solder point.

3. Use a good stand for your soldering iron, like a weighted coil stand. Not the little horse shoe shaped bit of metal that comes with the iron because two seconds after you put the soldering iron on that stand and start to arrange your Xbox mod chip that thing will flip right over sending the still flesh searingly hot iron onto the tip of your right middle finger giving you a second degree burn. And because you thought it would be a fantastic idea to work on your Xbox on a week night at 2am you can't scream or you'll wake up your significant other who needs to get up early for class, so you have to try and scramble up one-handed out from under your coffee table (because that's really the best place to use a hot piece of metal) trying to limit the number of times you jam your newly blistered finger into things while you try to get outside to the Pennsylvania winter and curse at the snow.

So as we've learned the soldering iron can be used to create any number of fun projects and to potentially let you compare your skin to the images on google to see what level of burn you have. So either way the whole process is still educational. Stop by next time for more safety tips.